24: Conspiracy Season 7
by JacobMichaud
Summary: When a longdead friend makes a surprising return, Jack Bauer will learn shocking new secrets about the growing conspiracy that involved his own family. Forced against CTU and his old colleagues, Jack must race against the clock to expose the conspirators.


_12 months after Season 6._

_The following takes place between 7:00 am and 8:00 am. Events occur in real time._

--

**CTU Los Angeles.**

NADIA YASSIR entered the CTU bull-pen. She took a moment to take in her surroundings. It had been almost a year since she had last been there. Around her were the faces of strangers. She looked at Chloe's workstation; it was being operated by a tall, well dressed man with glasses. It was hard watching him operate what had formerly been Chloe's computer. Nadia had followed the restructuring of CTU by the new Presidential administration, all of which had been personally overseen by Alberta Green.

The tall man at Chloe's desk saw Nadia and stood up. He walked over to her all the while smiling.

'You must be Nadia Yassir.' He said. 'I'm Arthur Jones, the senior analyst here at CTU.'

'You replaced Chloe O'Brian?' Nadia asked.

Arthur smiled 'Yeah, nearly six months ago now.'

Nadia shook his hand briefly. Arthur started walking and Nadia followed.

'I just want to say that it's an honour to be working with you. I've read the official commission's report into the events of last year and I think you handled every incident flawlessly.' Arthur said.

The image of Milo getting shot flashed in Nadia's mind.

'I don't think it was flawless, but thank-you.' Nadia said 'I'm sure that everyone here is just as capable.'

Arthur laughed, 'I don't know about that.'

They stopped at the base of the stairs that led up to the Director's office.

'Anyway, I don't want to keep you. Alberta Green wanted to see you as soon as you came in.' Arthur said.

Nadia nodded and continued up the stairs.

--

ALBERTA GREEN sat behind the Director's desk. She was on the telephone. There was a knock at the door.

'She's here now. I'll call you back.' Alberta said and hung the phone up. 'Come in Nadia…'

Alberta shuffled some papers around on the desk as Nadia entered the office. Nadia seemed meeker than Alberta thought she would be. She supposed it had something to do with the traumatic events that occurred a year ago.

'Nadia, please take a seat.' Alberta said. She typed on her computer for a moment and then closed the application. She directed her full, professional attention to Nadia.

'How has it been coming back?' Alberta said. 'Strange I'm sure.'

'It's a bit of a mind job but I'll get used to it.' Nadia said.

'A lot happened the last time you were here…' Alberta said.

Nadia looked outside the window at the CTU bullpen, the staffers all walked around busily. 'Yeah…'

'As you know CTU has been completely restructured. Under the initiative of President James Forest and under my guidance, Division examined and re-implemented every single protocol.' Alberta said without skipping a beat. 'We've also retrained and even replaced most employees.'

'I can see that.' Nadia said. She watched as Arthur typed at his work station.

'I want to tell you right now Nadia, if it were completely up to me I wouldn't have called you back. I wouldn't have called any previous employee of CTU back.' Alberta said.

Nadia was quiet.

'Nadia…' Alberta said. Her voice grew completely serious. 'I called you back here for a very specific reason.'

Nadia was completely drawn out of herself. She was alert, half curious and half worried.

'What is it?' Nadia asked.

Alberta broke eye contact.

'For the past six months, we've been gathering intelligence on a domestic terrorist group. We have reason to believe that they are going to assassinate the President of the United States of America.' Alberta said and paused.

Nadia cracked a wry smile. 'You must get intelligence like that all the time.'

'The group is being led by Bill Buchanan.'

Nadia's smile vanished. Her muscles tensed, she couldn't even move.

--

THE FIREPLACE crackled in the lounge room. It was very lowly lit and there were several paintings and framed photographs on the walls. A man sat on the lounge reading 'The Prince' by Machiavelli. The hand holding the book was scarred by a horrible acid burn and his face was extremely weathered.

The phone rang and Jack Bauer was drawn from his book. His immediate response was to get up and answer the phone but that was only a result of years of working as a federal agent. This time he waited. The answering machine picked it up.

'Hello, this is Jack Bauer. I'm sorry I can't answer the phone right now, but if you leave a message I'll get back to you.' Jack's recorded voice said.

'It's Kim…' Kimberly Bauer said and sighed. 'I know we haven't spoken in a long time, but I…'

Jack jumped to his feet and rushed to answer the phone.

'…I guess I'll call you back.' Kim said. Jack grabbed the phone but it was too late. The line was dead.

Jack hung up the phone and looked at himself in the mirror. Just when he thought he was finding some kind of stability, something happened to shake him. It was always either CTU or a woman.

The phone rang again. Jack ripped it off its base quickly.

'Kimberly…' Jack said.

'Jack, is that you? It's Bill Buchanan.' Said and aged voice on the other line. Jack's heart sank. Not only was it not his daughter, but now he would have to have a conversation he had spent the last year avoiding.

'Yeah Bill.' Jack said. 'Listen, this isn't a very good time. Do you think I could call you back?'

'We both know that you won't call me back, Jack.' Bill said. 'I've left you dozens of messages and none of them were ever returned.'

'I've been busy…' Jack said.

'No one is that busy.' Bill said.

Jack suddenly got frustrated.

'I don't have to justify myself to you Bill. I don't have to answer to anyone anymore. Yeah, I didn't return your calls! If you were in my position you wouldn't return them either.' Jack said.

'That might be true Jack, but it's not really relevant.' Bill said. 'I need to see you.'

'Our relationship was strictly professional Bill and I'm no longer a professional. I'm just a man.' Jack said.

'I need to tell you something very important. I'll only need ten minutes. If you aren't affected by what I say, I'll leave you alone for good.' Bill said.

Jack looked at himself in the mirror. Almost all of him wanted to hang up the phone and go back to his book. But there was something else, a small flame that hadn't been put out despite years and years of torment.

'Okay. Where do you want to meet?' Jack asked.

--

**White House, Washington DC.**

PRESIDENT JAMES Forest sat behind the desk in the oval office alone. He downed the last of his morning cup of coffee and finished reading the daily intelligence briefing from the CIA. At forty-eight, he was a young President but he had already been known as one of great change. He had been the first Republican elected since before both Palmer administrations. The campaign had left his hair completely grey.

The intercom buzzed and he pushed the 'receive' button.

'Mr. President, I have Vice President Gordon to see you.' The secretary said.

President Forest sighed in frustration. He had been waiting for the Vice President's reaction.

'Send him in.' President Forest took his finger off the 'receive' button.

The entrance to the oval office opened and Robert Gordon entered the office, his face was completely red. President Forest had always known that this was going to happen.

'Have you completely lost your mind!?' the Vice President proclaimed.

'What are you talking about?' President Forest said.

'I just finished reading that little domestic security bill your team composed.' Gordon said. 'It makes the Patriot Act look like a Mickey Mouse movie!'

'I thought you might say something like that.' President Forest said.

'What you propose; increased power to law enforcement agencies to detain citizens based on ethnicity, to phone and email tap individuals and torture!?' Gordon said.

'That's right. If we are going to stop terrorism we need agencies such as CTU to have more power over citizens, not less.' President Forest said.

'It won't pass! You can't possibly think that it will pass?' Gordon asked.

President Forest smiled at the Vice President.

'It will pass. We've spent years setting up this bill. There are players in this game that far outweigh you Robert.' President Forest said.

'I didn't think that it was possible, but you've completely lost your mind. The citizens of the United States will not stand by while you obligate them so completely. They won't!' Gordon said. 'Not only are you going to destroy your own Presidency, but you're going to destroy the Republican Party James.'

President Forest calmly put his hands together.

'You should remember this moment Robert, because it's the first moment in my administration where you are completely wrong.' President Forest said. 'And it's not James. It's Mr. President.'

Gordon only stood there.

'You're dismissed.' President Forest said.

Gordon stood for a moment longer and then turned and left the office, without saying a word.

President Forest sat back down behind his desk and continued to read the briefing.

--

NADIA YASSIR watched as Alberta finished giving her presentation. Highlighted in incredible detail was the case that CTU had against Bill Buchanan. Alberta sat back down behind her desk.

'…then Bill Buchanan and his wife Karen Hayes completely disappeared.' Alberta said. 'That was three months ago.'

'I have to say Ms. Green, I'm finding a lot of this very hard to believe.' Nadia said. 'Bill Buchanan has always been a patriot.'

'Be that as it may, the intelligence we have clearly indicates his involvement in the group that has identified itself as New Dawn.' Alberta said.

Nadia shifted in her chair uncomfortably.

'And their aim is to assassinate President James Forest?' Nadia asked.

'Yes.' Alberta said.

'Do you think that they could succeed?' Nadia asked.

'Naturally we've increased security around the President ten-fold but we're still very worried that they might have somebody on the inside.' Alberta said.

'What makes you think that?' Nadia said.

'The very fact that Bill is the leader of New Dawn. He has so many contacts inside the White House and any one of them could be a threat.' Alberta said.

Nadia looked away.

'Why would you come to me?' Nadia asked.

'Because you know Bill Buchanan, you know how his mind works. I want you to run point on intelligence analysis.' Alberta said. 'Every shred of information we get regarding Bill Buchanan and New Dawn will go through you.'

'I need to know Nadia, are you in or out?'

Nadia genuinely considered the question. She didn't have to for long.

'I'm in.' Nadia said.

--

Jack entered the cafe and immediately scanned the area for Bill. Jack was wearing jeans and a white long sleeved shirt. He finally saw Bill sitting alone at a table and walked over to him. Jack took a seat across from Bill.

Bill's face looked much older then it did when Jack last saw him. He looked visibly stressed. There were dark rings under his eyes. It didn't stop Jack from being abrupt.

'You've got ten minutes to tell me what this about and then I'm leaving.' Jack said.

Bill looked Jack in the eyes.

'Jack, it's good to see you.' Bill said.

'I wish I could say the same.' Jack said.

'I know that you've been through a lot, but I'd like to think that you're the closest thing to a friend that I have.' Bill said.

'It's not personal Bill. You of all people should know that. I can't deal with the job anymore and that means I can't deal with anybody tangled in it.' Jack said.

'I was fired from CTU Jack. I am no longer a government employee.' Bill said.

'What?' Jack said.

'I've been working with a group of extremely dedicated people. We've found things out Jack, things that explain a lot.' Bill said.

Jack looked at the ground.

'I wouldn't come to you if I didn't think it wasn't important.' Bill said.

Jack stood up and went to leave. 'I'm sure it is. I'm just not the guy to handle it. I can't do this anymore Bill.'

'Please, sit back down…' Bill was cut off.

'No Bill, I don't think you understand. I've spent the best part of the last year in therapy. I've dealt with everything that this job did to me and I'm not going to go back to that place again.' Jack said. 'I'm done.'

Jack turned to walk out of the café.

'Wait just a minute, Jack.' Bill pleaded.

Jack stopped dead in his tracks.

'What is it Bill?' Jack asked calmly. 'What is so important?'

Bill breathed in heavily. He knew he had to break the news to Jack, he just didn't know how he would handle it.

'It's Tony Almeida…' Bill said. 'He's still alive.'

**7:59:57…58…59…8:00:00.**


End file.
